If you read my previous post on Capiz, where I was talking about “Baybay”, right across that public park is a private resort, called San Antonio Resort, a private resort where locals and tourists alike frequent.

It has a pool that has the appearance of an eternity pool, on the other side is a late. The property is quite big, there are rooms, suites for overnight visitors. Also a venue for big events like weddings, debuts, and seminars for corporations and the government.

I didn’t get to see the rooms as my friend’s house is almost a hotel on its own, but the facilities of this place is great, clean and well maintained. The restaurant does not have fancy menu but more comfort Filipino food. Their mango shake is great, you can opt for no sugar or no cream, they have halo halo, lumpia and of course, pancit among other things. This is a good place to just hang out be with friends.

Incidentally, when we were there, there were a lot of US Military personnel from the USNS Mercy, the largest floating hospital managed and owned by the US Military.

found out that they were the conduit of non profit agencies and the military. The guys that we met were acting as a point men, they scope the location for safety, even look for locations for the staff R&R, how cool is that. They were trained in the military or academically. Two of them speaks Chinese, another Filipino. Everything is set up for the USS Mercy and they were getting ready for another assignment.

One will go to Bataan to talk about sexual harassment and sexual assault, noting the number of cases occurring in the Philippines. I had to ask him, “why? that seems to be an internal problem”. He responded, remember the Bible, when nobody from his neighborhood believes that Jesus is the Messiah. It’s the same case here, he noted the credibility and trust is hard to come by when talking about delicate issues as this one. Nodding in agreement, I was in awe, heck I didn’t know that the US military extends their help this much. I know, i know, you’re going to say, don’t be too impressed after all Pemberton has just been found guilty of murder and on our soil, but he is bad apple in the bushel.

Anyway, they shred this story bout a local in Capiz who had accident and brought to the hospital, while they were there coordinating eye examinations for surgery. The local hospital not being equipped with facilities can only offer amputation to save his life. Their boss intervened and said to hold on while he made his phone calls. It turned out that the USNS Mercy has a number of state of the art artificial legs, so they took him aboard for surgery and fitted with the AL. The patient walked away with a $10K applince for free. Super wow…

It was great to enjoy the location, beat the heat and gain new insights, which I wouldn’t have otherwise learned, had I stayed home. They don’t toot their horn, eh.